An opportunity that Europe didn’t ask for 

VIB’s Jérôme van Biervliet says on The BioCentury Show that Europe needs to fulfill its long overdue mission in biotech as the U.S. enters uncertain terrain

Europe did not ask for this opportunity, says VIB’s Jérôme van Biervliet, but with FDA and the U.S. research funding situation headed into uncertain territory, it needs to use this moment to capitalize on its strengths in research, and address the shortcomings of its business and regulatory systems that have made it hard for biotech to fulfill its potential there.

Van Biervliet is managing director of Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), a key player in the life sciences innovation ecosystem in Flanders, Belgium, from research and tech transfer to building and funding start-ups. In addition to his roles as an investor and on local accelerator organizations, he advises the Belgian government and European Commission on biotech matters.

Ahead of BioCentury’s Bio€quity Europe conference in Bruges, which will discuss how Europe can meet the complexity of this moment, van Biervliet talked to The BioCentury Show about the landscape unfolding in Europe, as well as where he sees innovation headed.

“It’s pretty much with astonishment,” that European biotech is viewing what’s happening in the U.S. right now, said van Biervliet, adding that the changes to life science funding “will have a long term effect” given the timeline of translation from idea to product.

“Is this an opportunity? Every challenge is an opportunity. We’d rather not have this of course, but it’s been long overdue, [and] Europe should step in, in terms of driving its own innovation industry but in a way which is close to our heart, in a collaborative fashion,” said van Biervliet.

When Belgium held the presidency of the Council of the European Union, van Biervliet was involved in advising on the Biotech Act that’s currently being drafted.

He said there are three areas of high priority, that will require a “coalition of willing member states” to lead, given the variability across the continent.

The first is to increase the translation of publicly funded science into entrepreneurship and companies that can develop the products all the way to market. “We do have excellent hubs, but it’s not uniform across Europe,” he said. “And so we need to step up and think of ways how to push that.”

The second is to improve financing of innovation from European sources. “There is capital in Europe, but the European capital markets have not worked for venture capital and on public markets for biotech as much as they have in the U.S.” Rather than having to go to NASDAQ or to private U.S. investors, the goal would be for Europe to offer another source of growth capital.

“For example on the stock market, a lot of rules were introduced after the Euro crisis to avoid some of the risks that were clearly at the origin of the banking crisis.” Given the intrinsically high nature risk of biotech, that’s led to a particularly adverse capital environment for European biotech. That can be fixed, he says.

The third is regulatory reform, where van Biervliet sees too much risk aversion in Europe. “This is an area where we can build our competitiveness by looking not at not just hazards — there has to be a balance between the force and good of innovation and bringing innovation forward, and the risks they take.” 

On top of that is the logistical complexity of the regulatory approval process. “Lining everything up, making things less complex, not the two step levels of the European level and then the country member state by member state level,” he said. This extends to improving market access, so that European patients aren’t so far down the line in terms of benefitting from this innovation, where many other countries agree on market access before Europe does.

Van Biervliet also discussed the innovation ecosystem in Belgium, the science and strategy behind Augustine Therapeutics N.V., one of VIB’s investments, and how VIB enables translational research.